Ethical decision‑making for AI leaders

Most AI decisions that go wrong weren’t made in bad faith. They were made without a clear process, and that’s what makes them hard to defend when someone asks why.

AI is moving faster than regulation and most companies’ governance, so leaders are making calls with no legal or industry precedent to lean on. Mark will walk through the framework he uses with leaders to make those calls, and to stand behind them afterward.

It’s a small group, so there’s room to talk.

What we’ll cover

1. Why good leaders still get AI decisions wrong

   Competing interests, speed versus oversight, and treating compliance as the finish line.

2. A framework for decisions you can defend

   How to weigh the people affected and what you owe each of them, and how to record your reasoning so it holds up with a board, a regulator or your own team.

3. Case study: AI in hiring

   A company wants to use AI to screen candidates, and the early numbers point to disparate impact. We’ll work through it together before Mark shares his approach.

4. Open discussion

   Built around the dilemmas you share when you register.

What you’ll leave with

• A clear line between ethical judgment and legal compliance, and why compliance alone isn’t enough.
• A repeatable way to work through hard AI calls and explain your reasoning.
• Governance habits proportionate to the risk of the decision.

Your speaker

Mark Katchen

Founder, Applied Ethics Advisors

Mark Katchen, MS, MBA, is the founder of Applied Ethics Advisors, where he helps leaders make and defend difficult decisions under uncertainty, competing pressures, and scrutiny. He has spent more than 40 years advising organizations on high-stakes health and safety decisions.

He is co-author of the Wiley book Ethical Decision-Making in Environmental Health and Safety: A Comparative Case Study Approach, teaches applied ethics at UCLA, and built the Ethical Decision Analyzer, a web tool that puts his framework to work. He advises leaders on the ethical governance of AI.